Our neighbour has planted a bamboo alongside his fence It has grown to 8 feet tall and is nowblowing over the fence into the faces of my wife and myself when we walk along a narrow pathway at the bottom of our gardento exit the rear of our property.(fence is 5ft )Our neighbour is unapproachable No answer to letters and can be aggressive.What can be done.

If the fence is yours i can but suggest you add 18 inches or maybe 2 ft of trellis to it using battens

if its his fence then you could add trellis but on your own posts ......2 by 2 tanalised posts should suffice and they can be tight to the existing fence although staggering them between existing posts will be easiest option

you could insert tall poles into the ground tight to the fence and attach bamboo screening to 6ft6in high or even run lots of wires across

It isn't that I am being unsympathetic or anything but I can't help but wonder whether your neighbour got advice on here It is a common recommendation to provide privacy. Regulars will maybe know what I mean!

If the bamboo blows over the boundary you can cut the part on your side. If the bamboo is simply annoying because of it's height there is little that you can do about it. It seems a little pointless just building height on the fence to conceal it.

best regards

Alan Harris

Alan is a consulting engineer specialising in subsidence, tree roots, soils and party wall surveying.

Alan Harris wrote: If the bamboo blows over the boundary you can cut the part on your side. If the bamboo is simply annoying because of it's height there is little that you can do about it. It seems a little pointless just building height on the fence to conceal it.

But the extra height on the fence will stop the bamboo blowing into people's faces as they walk up the path, unless they're very tall!

2m is the start point because you can have a fence that high, there is no point complaining about a 2m hedge. I have dealt with a great many HH complaints and the majority in the 2-3m range ended with an action height greater than the actual

But all that is irrelevant because you cant use the HH legislation can you.

Unfortunately the enforcement of legislation by Local Authorities (LA's) is still very much hit and miss. The Building Inspectors can often enforce the Building regulations but,if they do not as a consequence of omission, incompetence or or intent, they have no liability for the consequences. In my experience you cannot make the LA implement its own or statutory requirements in many cases. Dare I say it, political pressures can influence the decisions of public officials especially where the rules are complex and can be subject to "professional" opinion or are simply easily obfuscated by technical phraseology.

The green lobby has huge influence and some tree departments still defend trees and large plants as a matter of course without consideration of how they influence those in close proximity to them. So sometimes if someone in the department has a sympathetic view about a particular specimen then they have the power to delay action until you are more fed up than they are with doing anything. Local politicians can also have an influence and may assist you (or not) depending on personal contacts or preferences. So if at first the Tree officer is not minded to apply high hedges guidelines then it may be almost impossible to achieve the required objective.

best regards

Alan Harris

Alan is a consulting engineer specialising in subsidence, tree roots, soils and party wall surveying.

It would be helpful to know the distance from your house to the path you walk along.

I also think it would not be wise to cut off any part of the bamboo which is simply "blowing over" the fence in question. I believe it would need to be "growing over" your boundary before you are allowed to cut it.